There is a Light that Never Goes Out
by RosaSanctus
Summary: After that night in the Cabin, Rose realizes that she's pregnant with Dimitri's child. But with Dimitri back in Russia for a Family emergency Rose has to have the baby on her own. What happens when Dimitri returns? With Rose bed-ridden and Strigoi after her miracle child, what will Rose do? Will Dimitri accept Rose and their new child? Or return to his life in Russia? (Beta needed)
1. Chapter 1

_"He left this morning." Adrian gave me a pained look as he clasped my hands in his, "they said that his grandmother was close to passing." _

_ "Yeva," I breathed out. I closed my eyes, trying to breathe normally. _

_ "Rose?" Adrian sounded unsure, "Are you okay?" I nodded quickly._

_ "He left to go see his grandmother, to take care of his family." I said it more to reassure myself more than Adrian, "He'll be back." Adrian nodded, but his sad eyes told me that he wasn't so sure._

_ "From what you've told me, his family is close, they'll need time to heal. What if, well what if he just decides to stay close to them from now on?" I shook my head, unwilling to accept that as an option._

_ "He'll come back for me Adrian," despite my will to keep my emotions in check, tears began to run down my cheeks, "He has to," I looked back at my desk, where Dimitri's note sat next to a box of pregnancy tests._

_ "Were you able to tell him, before he went?" Adrian looked down at my stomach, as if he could will himself to see the life that was starting to form inside me._

_ "Of course not, I just found out myself last night. I thought I had all the time in the world to get the courage to tell him."_

_ "I'm sure he'll be back," Adrian assured me, closing the space between us to kiss my forehead. I sighed, relaxing slightly. Adrian always knew how to make me feel better. I looked back at the note, folded crisply on my desk, my nickname, "Roza," sprawled across the paper in Dimitri's beautiful handwriting. I could almost hear him whisper my name in my ear, like a Russian prayer. My heart began to hurt._

_ "I should be going." Adrian sighed, letting himself out of my room, a wicked smile playing at his lips, "You know," when he laughed, it sounded sad, "only a god like Belikov could manage to create such a miracle." And with that, Adrian was gone, shutting my door with a soft thud. I smiled to myself, looking down at my stomach. Adrian was right; it truly was a miracle._

9 months later

"How much longer do I have to be cooped up in here?" I let out a groan as Dr. Olendzki walked into the room, a slightly tired look worried her forehead as she brought me my dinner.

"I've been told to keep you for one more week. Just to make sure you're ready to head back into the world."

"I am _so_ ready to back," sighing; I shoveled the slightly tasteless infirmary food into my mouth.

"Rose, after your surgery it's crucial that you don't strain your body until it's healthy." I nodded, hating that she had a point. Nine months had passed since Dimitri had left to return to Yvea in Baia, and since I found out I was pregnant. A slight hitch had made me, as well as my son, Alexander Ivan Hathaway infirmary-bound since I had given birth to him one week prior.

"When can I see him?" I asked her, shifting my gaze towards my half-eaten dinner, almost afraid of her answer.

"I can go get him for you now if you'd like?" Olendzki smiled, "his infection has cleared up quickly. The only reason he's still here is because you are." I nodded, excitement tugging at my heart. My baby was okay. In the short time it would take Olendski to retrieve Alexander, I finished my dinner, and pushed the tray away from me. My body ached and pinched and I noted that the pain medication that usually kept me from feeling the injuries I'd acquired during childbirth were starting to fade.

"Here's momma!" Dr. Olendzki opened the door, bouncing a bundled up infant in her arms. He had been crying, but as soon as the doctor put Alexander into Rose's arms, the baby went silent; comforted by his mother's warmth.

"He's so beautiful," Rose sighed, still shocked by the presence of her son. So tiny, and soft, the top of his head graced with a few silky tuffs of hair. Rose pressed her nose to his head, breathing in the sweet smell that only a baby possesses.

"He is," a new voice made Rose look up to find Kirova was watching her. Kirova's face was soft and almost adoring as she looked down upon Rose and her child; a look that Rose never thought possible for Kirova, _especially_ when looking at Rose.

"I didn't expect you to be one of my visitors." Rose said with a small smile, "What brings you here?" Kirova looked down, almost embarrassed,

"I just wanted to see how you and the baby were," ringing her hands together, Kirova almost looked out of place,

"Would you like to hold him?" Rose asked, mostly out of courtesy.

"Would, would that be okay?" Kirova asked, eyes wide with shock,

"Of course," Rose laughed softly, carefully handing Alexander over to Kirova who cradled him like a treasure. The door opened, and Olendski was back with a syringe.

"It's time for your medication, Hathaway." Rose groaned,

"I'll pass out."

"Sleep is important, Rosemarie," Kirova said, her posture turned tight and teacher-like, "you won't get much of it after you're out of our care." Rose nodded, taking one last look at her child before the medication pulsed through her system and almost instantly made her drowsy. In her sleep, she was thrown back into another flash back from nine months ago…

_"Rose, open the door!" Lissa pounded on the door to Rose's room. It had been two weeks since Dimitri had left, and Rose had kept herself locked up inside her room, with exception to classes, in which she kept to herself. "Rose, if you don't open this door I'll get someone who can!" she shouted again. Through the bond Lissa begged Rose to open the door, a feeling of exasperation and sadness hit her in waves, adding to Rose's discomfort of morning sickness. (This tended to actually be "morning, noon and night" sickness)._

_ "You can't avoid me forever." Lissa cried, and begged with more force through the bond. Rose caved, lifting her body from her bed and over to the door. Once she had unlocked the door, Lissa came bursting in, before Rose could change her mind._

_ "What the hell is wrong with you!?" Lissa demanded, all sadness replaced with anger, Rose was half surprised Lissa hadn't slapped her yet._

_ "I'm sorry," Rose croaked, her voice giving away the endless nights of sobbing Rose had come accustomed to. Fear burst through the bond._

_ "What's happened?" Lissa asked, taking Rose's arms, her eyes frantic, "Rose you look like death."_

_ "I feel like death," Rose laughed sadly, this was anything but funny._

_ "Rose," Lissa was terrified. Her rock, her best friend, her sister who had always been there and strong was crumbling before her, and there was nothing she could do about it._

_ "I'll be okay Liss," Rose was assuring herself more than Lissa._

_ "Rose!" Lissa begged, tears forming in her eyes. Rose began to tear up as well, the reality of everything crushing down on her to such a degree that breathing was almost impossible._

_ "Lissa," when her voice spoke it was only a whisper, "I don't think I'll be able to be your guardian." Sobs began to wrack Rose's body._

_ "What do you mean?" Lissa was beyond confused, "you're upset, you're not making sense."_

_ "No, Lissa. I can't be your guardian." Lissa shook Rose violently,_

_ "Stop Talking!" Lissa insisted, "You've always been my guardian! Promise mark or not! We've always been together, you can't split us apart now, you can'-"_

_ "I'm pregnant Liss," Rose cried out before Lissa could go on any further. The tears in Rose's eyes were enough that she could hardly see Lissa anymore, and her heart hurt so terribly that she thought that she would die on the spot. Lissa grabbed Rose into a tight embrace. The embrace was crushing, and through the bond, Lissa's mind was reeling, the embrace was the only thing keeping her, as well as Rose, from falling apart completely. _

_ "Who," she asked, her voice was so quiet, that even in such close proximity Rose had a hard time hearing it._

_ "What?"_

_ "Who, who did this to you?" Lissa asked once more, a fierceness was in her words, and through the bond, Adrian's head popped up. Rose shook her head violently,_

_ "It's not anything you're thinking." _

_ "Rose, he's the only Moroi you even remotely get along with, let alone talk to." _

_ The guess was a logical one. Who else would it have been? If only it were such a simple situation._

_ "A Moroi didn't do this to me,"_

_ "Rose…" Lissa looked at Rose now, forcing their eyes to meet. She thought Rose had finally lost it. She thought that maybe the darkness had finally taken her over, just like it had Anna._

_ "I guess it's the perk of being shadow-kissed," Rose sighed, trying to keep herself from having another break down. Lissa was shaking her head,_

_ "Don't you think there would have been something in our research? No one would just let something like this slip." Rose shook her head,_

_ "We can barely find anything on spirit as it is, do you really think they would have something on a child coming from two Dhampirs?" Lissa sighed,_

_ "I guess not," she murmured, as the wheels in her mind began turning. "But, if it was a Dhampir, who was it? Eddie?" she ruled Mason out, the timeline being wrong, but her conclusion still shocked me,_

_ "No! Never!" _

_Lissa was stumped, she went through the list in her head of the Dhampir men in my life and threw out all of them because I either hated them, or they were dead. And then, suddenly, it hit her. Through the bond, Dimitri's face came into view. All of the little things came through from her memory. How concerned Dimitri and I always were with one another, the way he acted around Adrian, and how I acted with Tasha. More memories came through the bond, and each one was like a dagger to Rose's heart. The way they looked at one another, the car ride with Victor to the mall, the accusations at the court, the way Dimitri reacted when Rose had fallen from the bench. It had all been so obvious and in her face, and Lissa had looked it over so effortlessly because he had been Rose's mentor._

_ "How could I have been so stupid?" Lissa whispered, but the embarrassment Lissa felt was soon turned into rage as her eyes shot accusing daggers at Rose, "Why didn't you tell me?"_

_ "Because it was nothing," Rose sighed, the tears silently fell down her cheeks. She barely noticed them anymore._

_ "I hardly call this nothing," Lissa said, looking down at Rose's stomach._

_ "But it was nothing!" Rose exclaimed, the words hurt as she said them. "We couldn't have ever been together! All we had were stolen glances and mistakes."_

_ "He was your teacher," Lissa said in disbelief, she felt betrayed by Rose, but she was disgusted with Dimitri._

_ "Don't do that." Rose spat, hating the way Lissa thought of him._

_ "Rose, he used you." She hissed, "He was your teacher, he knew better."_

_ "He tried so hard," I groaned, remembering all the times Dimitri tried to stay in control of our situation. "Half the time, I was the one forcing things."_

_ "But why-"Lissa stopped herself, gasping, "You loved him, didn't you." It wasn't a question, she could see it. She could see it in the way Rose's eyes burned out of life every time Lissa thought of him. Rose could only nod,_

_ "Did he love you too?"_

_ "Yeah,"_

_ "Then where is he?" Rose sighed,_

_ "His grandmother was dying. He rushed home to be with his family."_

_ "That was almost a month ago, where is he now?"_

_ "Still there I guess."_

_ "Does he know about the baby?" Rose shook her head,_

_ "He was gone by the time I found out."_

_ "Jerk." Rose laughed,_

_ "How was he supposed to know he'd get me pregnant?" Lissa shrugged,_

_ "He's still a jerk." Rose laughed again as she felt all the anger and hurt leave Lissa. She wasn't mad at Rose, she was sorry for her. Through the bond she filtered in only love, and a desire to protect Rose like Rose would have protected her if the role was reverse._

_ "What do we do now?" Rose asked, relaxing into Lissa's embrace._

_ "Well, we'll have to go to the school about this." Lissa sighed, and Rose nodded,_

_ "Kirova's gonna have a heart attack." Lissa giggled,_

_ "She's going to die." Lissa sobered up, "Will you tell her it was Dimitri?" Rose shook her head,_

_ "No one needs to know who the father is; just that he was a Dhampir." Lissa nodded,_

_ "This is a miracle." She sighed, smoothing out Rose's hair._

_ "I know," Rose sighed, it didn't feel like a miracle, not yet._

_ XXX_

When Rose woke up, it was the next day, and noon.

"It's about time!" Lissa giggled by Rose's bedside. "I thought you were going to sleep into tomorrow!"

"Where's Alexander?" Rose asked, shocked that Lissa wasn't ogling at him like she did every time she came to visit.

"He was fast asleep, just like his mama," She cooed, as Kirova entered the room.

"Good, you're finally awake." There was a slight uneasiness to Kirova, a three-sixty from the mood she had been in yesterday when she had visited Rose.

"What's up?" Rose asked, wanting Kirova to get straight to the point. Kirova nodded in understanding, and cleared her throat.

"As you know," she began, keeping her voice strong and authoritative, "the academy allowed you to graduate and become Lissa's guardian, despite your situation." Rose nodded,

"I'm to take Eddie's place once I'm out of this bed." Kirova shifted her eyes nervously.

"Yes, well, we took you out of the field as soon as your bump began to show, and you've been without exorcise for quite some time…" Rose sat up in her bed, her anger beginning to get the better of her,

"Don't pull this with me Kirova! I worked hard while I was in lock down! It may not be hardcore guardian training, but I stayed in shape!" Kirova nodded earnestly,

"Yes, I understand but still, we need you to be in top condition if you're going to protect the princess." Rose nodded,

"And I'll be there!"

"Yes, but you also have to think about your child as well," Kirova wasn't yelling, but she wasn't exactly speaking calmly anymore.

"We'll be at The Court soon! They have daycares and plenty of guardians around!" Kirova sighed, and looked at Lissa.

"Liss?" Rose looked at Lissa to back her up, instead she bit her lip.

"I'll leave this to you," Kirova turned on her heels, "I have to meet up with her new guardian."

_ "My_ guardian?" Rose asked incredulously, "since when do guardians need guardians?"

"Since they give birth to a baby with two Dhampir parents," Lissa said, not meeting Rose eye to eye. "Strigoi somehow got wind of Alexander, they've been pacing around the wards for the past few days." A pang of fear shot through Rose's heart.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"They didn't want to worry you." Lissa grabbed for Rose's hand. "You'll only have a guardian for a few weeks until they can get you back into bad ass shape and then he'll go off to protect Alexander."

"I thought everyone agreed to keep this whole incident locked up."

"The guardian's not going to know. His orders are to whip you into shape, protect you and a child. He hasn't been told who the child is, and Alexander is too young for anyone to be able to tell if he's Moroi or Dhampir anyway."

"This is stupid!" Rose shouted, "I can take care of him, and I can take care of myself!"

"Rose calm down," Lissa begged, tugging on Rose's hand,

"Don't tell me to calm down, this is bullshit! I'm a fucking guardian! I don't need anyone, I'm the best there is!" Lissa rolled her eyes,

"Rose just quiet down,"

"No! I won't be silent!" Rose's anger was building up, "All yell all I want, I'll curse, I'll do whatever I want, I'll fight my way out of here right now and kick every Strigoi bu-" just then, the door opened, and Kirova walked in, an annoyed look on her face, as a taller figure walked in behind her. All the fight left Rose as she sank back into the bed. She couldn't tell if her heart was exploding from relief or heart ache, but when those warm brown eyes met hers all she could do was breath out his name,

"Dimitri…"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Rose could only sit and stare as Dimitri walked into the room.

"Of course," Kirova rolled her eyes, "you will yell and cause a scene all you want until Guardian Belikov walks in. Leave it to him to be the only one that can keep you civilized."

"I think we should leave them alone." Lissa mumbled, getting up and releasing Rose's hand. Rose almost asked her to stay, to keep her from being alone with Dimitri. Rose kept silent, however, and soon the door behind Kirova and Lissa closed, leaving the two of them alone.

"Rose," he smiled, walking closer to her bedside, he took the seat that Lissa had been sitting in, "what have you gotten yourself into?" Rose found it was hard for her to swallow.

"What have they told you?" Dimitri shook his head,

"They haven't briefed me on anything yet. Guardians in Russia had gotten wind that 'The great Rose Hathaway' had been hospitalized and needed someone to protect her until she was back on her feet. They say a lot of Strigoi are making their way over here to find you." Rose sighed,

"Yeah I heard." Dimitri grabbed for Rose's hand, placing it between both of his,

"They're pissed, Rose. They usually don't make such a big deal about just one Guardian. What did you do?" Rose laughed,

"I didn't do anything, Comrade." Dimtri smiled at his old nickname, and his eyes grew fond.

"You look beautiful." Rose was shocked by how forward Dimitri was. Even now, he was leaning in close, his nose almost touching hers. One of his hands let go of hers, just to reach up and tuck some hair behind Rose's ear.

"I've been stuck in this bed for a week now, I'm pretty sure I look anything but beautiful." Rose rolled her eyes, but Dimitri's face was serious.

"I missed you," his accent was thick, and a sort of longing filled his words that were all too familiar to Rose.

"You've been gone nearly a year," she smiled sadly, leaning into his touch as he played with her hair, "I thought that maybe you weren't coming back." Dimitri pressed a kiss to Rose's forehead, "I'd always come back to you, Roza." He whispered, his lips lingering for a moment longer.

"How's Yeva?" Rose asked, straining her neck to look up into Dimitri's eyes. He paused for a moment, as if he wasn't quite sure how to answer,

"She's doing well. She made a quick recovery."

"I hardly call almost a year a quick recovery," Rose said skeptically, but as she pushed to sit up straighter a pinch in her abdomen made her cringe.

"What is it?" Dimitri asked, shooting up, not sure as to how to help. Rose waved him off,

"Why were you gone for so long?" she pressed, Dimitri looked at her wearily,

"I figured that if I was gone, you would be able to focus better on graduating."

"You were my mentor, Dimitri," Rose began, her anger starting to build up, "you were the one preparing me for graduation."

"You didn't need me anymore," Dimitri said, a nervous glint in his eyes, "Rose you're still recovering you need to take it easy. We can have this discussion la-"

"No Dimitri," she cut him off, "We're having it now." Dimitri shook his head,

"No, Rose, we'll talk about it when you can actually get out of bed on your own."

"Are you sure about that, comrade?" Rose could hear the bitterness in her voice, and she didn't care. "Wouldn't you rather tell me now, while I'm not able to get up and smack that look off your face?" It had been almost a year, and Yvea had been fine. What had he been doing all the way out in Baia while she had been here, having his child? Dimitri gave Rose an exasperated look just as Adrian barged in.

Walking straight up to Dimitri he got as close as face-to-face was possible with a six foot, seven

Russian before pointing his finger straight in his face,

"What the hell is he doing here?"

"You can take that up with Kirova," Rose muttered, suddenly uncomfortable. Dimitri narrowed his eyes, bringing his face down closer to Adrian's,

"They brought me in to take care of her." Dimitri's words almost sounded like a challenge, like he wanted Adrian to try to come near Rose. It would have been amusing if the look in Adrian's eyes hadn't been so dangerous.

"They hired a guardian to protect me and get me back into fighting shape." Rose clarified, hoping that maybe reworded, it wouldn't make Adrian so angry. It was no use.

"Where have you been?" Adrian spat, "Where have you been while Rose was left here on her by herself? I bet you don't even know what's been going on,"

"Adrian, don't," Rose threatened. She didn't want everything spilled out on Dimitri's first day back, and she especially didn't want Adrian to be the one to blurt it all out.

"You came running when you heard Rose was in the hospital, but what if she wasn't? Would you have even come back?" Dimitri didn't answer right away; he looked at Rose with pleading eyes.

"I would have come back eventually. I promise." All the pain Rose had felt with Dimitri's absence came back. Adrian had been right. How long would it have been if Rose hadn't been hurt during childbirth, a month? A year? Three years? Once she was back to full health, would he just go back to Russia?

"She almost died!" Adrian yelled, pushing Dimitri straight in the chest. He stumbled back a few paces, caught off guard. "She almost died, and you weren't here. You missed it." Adrian went to shove Dimitri again, and Dimitri allowed it. Still looking at Rose, his eyes turned sadder. "It's your fault!" Adrian yelled, pushing him a third time. Tears began streaking down Rose's face. Her heart was tearing and swelling with pain and anger. She had loved Dimitri with every ounce of her being, but what had she meant to him? He had said he loved her, and she knew he meant it, but why couldn't he have come back to her? Even with Yeva and graduation, he could have come back months ago! Rose wanted to accept him. She wanted to welcome him home and tell him that it was okay, that she forgave him, but she couldn't. Dimitri hadn't just left her, even if he was unaware of it, he abandoned his son. Rose's anger peaked,

"Adrian, get him out of here. I don't want to see him." Adrian nodded,

"Rose," Dimitri pleaded, but she didn't feel sorry for those sad eyes anymore.

"I don't want to see you. Now get out."

"Rose please let me-"

"Oh now you want to explain?" Rose cut him off, "well now I don't want to hear it. I don't want to see your face. GET. OUT." As Rose yelled, Dr. Olendzki walked in,

"Rose?" she asked softly, "Alexander is getting restless, he wants to see you." Dimitri's head shot up, looking from the doctor to Rose,

"Who's Alexander?"

"You don't have the right to know." Rose spat, "Now get out. I don't want you to meet him."

"Who is he?" Dimitri asked again, a look of pure anguish crossed his features. Rose knew that he thought it was a man, and she wasn't about to correct him.

"It's none of your business." Dr. Olendski looked back and forth between the two, looking uncomfortable.

"Should I bring him to you?"

"Yes, once Guardian Belikov leaves." Dr. Olendski nodded,

"Do you need anything for the pain?" she asked. Rose shook her head, looking deep into Dimitri's eyes before he turned to leave,

"No, I've felt worse."


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to put this up! I had meant to put it up Friday night but then the whole voting thing for Dimitri happened so I spent most of the day voting. (YAY WE WON!) I made this chapter longer than the last one to make up for it! Hope you enjoy!**_

Chapter 3

As soon as Rose wasn't confined to the infirmary anymore, she made her was to Kirova's office.

"I'm not dismissing Guardian Belikov from protecting you." Kirova stated, guessing the reason for Rose's visit before she even got the chance to sit down.

"You haven't even heard me out yet!" Rose protested, crossing her arms in discontent.

"I don't need to." Kirova said, her temper obviously rising, "I've done everything you've asked of me Ms. Hathaway. I've kept the secret of your child, I've hired extra guards for when Princess Vasilisa comes to visit, and I even turned my infirmary into a makeshift maternity ward because Dr. Olendzki was the only person you trusted. I have been more than compliant."

"I understand, and I'm grateful," Rose insisted,

"No," Kirova cut Rose off before she could continue, "I really don't think you do understand. I've gone out of my way to make sure that you and your son are comfortable, when really, you're eighteen, and I could have kicked you out of our gates the second you came to me looking for help. Strigoi are lining up at academy wards just itching to get their hands on your and Alexander, and I still don't flinch on my deal to help you. All I ask, is that you keep up your end. You promised that no matter the means, you would ensure that you would get back into guardian shape if you were able to become Ms. Dragomir's guardian when all of this," she motioned vaguely around the room, "was over with." Rose nodded,

"I'm sorry Kirova," her voice was small as she stood up from her seat. Rose walked over, and outstretched her hand towards her former school headmistress, "you saved my life, as well as my child's, and I will never find a way to show my gratitude." Kirova took Rose's hand, and pulled her into a surprising, yet warm hug.

"You'll be a great mother, Rosemarie." She said fondly, "A great guardian too, I'm sure. Just make sure that you take time to remember that sometimes you can't be both at the same time." Rose pulled back slightly from the hug,

"I'm not sure what you mean?" Kirova laughed softly,

"One day you will, dear."

And with that, Rose had to agree Kirova. In three days, everyone would be heading back to the court, and Rose would have to resume being a student under Dimitri's wing. For now, however, the day was crisp in clean, a cold bite in the air filled Rose's lungs. All those days laying in bed had made her stir crazy, and she yearned for action.

Running to the gym, Rose quickly slipped off her thick winter clothing, and replaced them with her work out clothes. Setting out a punching bag, Rose wrapped her hands, and began alternating through reps of kicking and punching. As the sweat began to coat her brow, she couldn't help but turn her thoughts back to when she would do these same exercises with Dimitri.

One of the things that had made Rose fall for Dimitri had always been hid dedication. Rose was a force to be reckoned with, she knew, and prided herself on that fact. But Dimitri, he had taken her on when no one else would. He took her raw and untamed personality and never backed down. He saw potential in her when no one else did, and helped her control all of her passion, and turn it into something people respected and Strogoi feared.

It had worked the other way around as well. Dimitri had built that guardian wall up too high, and never let anyone in after Ivan had died. Rose had broken that wall, and saw him as he truly was; something that had scared Dimitri in the beginning. They were good for one another, they pushed and pulled and sculpted the good and bad from each of their personalities and both had become better people out of the experience.

Rose began to kick and punch harder, a slight sting had started to form in her left hand, but she brushed it off as she got lost in her thoughts. She thought about all the times Dimitri and her had sparred, and how many times they'd both lost control while training. She had locked each stolen kiss inside her heart, and cherished them like precious treasures. She had always known that they could never be together. Two guardians with the same charge, it was dangerous and selfish. But Dimitri had made her hope. That day, after their night of passion in the cabin, Dimitri had a plan to make everything better. He was going to take care of things, like he always did.

Rose thought about the last nine months. Even with Lissa and Adrian by her side, she had felt so alone. In the beginning she thought that maybe Dimitri would call, or write. But each day, as the months flew by and her stomach swelled, her hope had be squashed and she started facing the facts that she might not seen Dimitri ever again.

Now things were complicated. With Dimitri back, Rose felt hope blooming inside her chest once more. Maybe he really did want to be with her, and maybe once things turned back to normal, the plans he had talked about before he left would come true, and they could figure out a way to be together. But a lot of unanswered questions were still there, and every time Rose thought about them, her eyes began to sting, and anger boiled up from deep inside her. She knew that it was selfish and wrong to keep Alexander a secret from him, but she was just so hurt, and a little scared. What if Dimitri didn't want Alexander? What if Dimitri didn't even feel the same way for Rose as he once did? If Dimitri left this time, fine, Rose could take it. But there was no way she would share her son with a man that didn't even give her the time of day while she was pregnant with his child.

By now, spots of red began to appear on the pale canvas of the punching bag, and tears began to blur her vision. Rose was vaguely aware of the door to the gym opening and closing, but she kept hitting, harder and harder until strong arms wrapped around her from behind, restricting her arms, and causing her to snap out of her angry red haze.

"Get off," she barked, twisting in those all too familiar arms. Now she was face to face with Dimitri, she couldn't tell if sadness or anger were taking over her. Dimitri unwrapped his arms from around Rose, only to quickly grab up her hands.

"What did you do this time?" He tsked. Looking down, Rose realized that she hadn't wrapped her hands as well as she thought. Everything had come undone, leaving her knuckles bare and bloody.

"Shit," she muttered, inspecting her hand. The more she calmed down, the more it began to hurt.

The situation reminded her some much of how things had been before. Before the baby, before he had left, before she had even realized how much she loved Dimitri. Just like the first time she had bloodied her knuckles, Dimitri pulled her off to the side, and began cleaning and bandaging them.

"I haven't seen you in a while," Rose said slowly. After the blow up in the infirmary, Dimitri hadn't come back to visit her.

"I figured it would be best to keep my distance."

"Well it's what you're best at." Rose muttered. Dimitri stopped wrapping her hands,

"I want to explain things," he said earnestly, squeezing her hands tightly, "I want you to at least hear my side, even if you don't understand it."

"Okay," Rose sighed. In reality, she'd been waiting for him to come back and explain. Dimitri nodded, and took a deep breath,

"When I left for Russia, it was hard. The school was still recovering from the attack, and after that night in the cabin, hiding my feeling for you had become difficult." Dimitri shook his head laughing to himself, "Alberta gave me quite the little talk." Rose had to refrain from having her jaw drop to the floor,

"Alberta knew about us?!" Dimitri nodded,

"She's a lot more observant than I gave her credit for. She reminded me that your graduation was close, she told me to keep focused and to not let my feeling ruin something before it had the chance to start." Rose smiled. One of the big fears she had about her relationship with Dimitri had always been how people would react when the truth came out. Alberta gave her hope. If anything were to happen, that is.

"When I got the call about my grandmother, I didn't think twice. I had to go to her, to my mother and sisters, I had to." He seemed to be pleading with Rose, begging for her to understand.

"I understood that," Rose whispered, worrying that if she spoke any louder, it might give away the anger that was boiling in her stomach, "but if she had gotten better so quickly, why would you have stayed so long? You can claim it was for me, but I know it's not the real reason." Dimitri looked sad, and almost annoyed. Time and distance had not dulled the profound link between the two of them. It made difficult, and left them to be vulnerably open with one another.

"It's not a lie that it was good for you." Dimitri began, "I was slipping in my control, and I could have ruined both of our reputations. The distance insured that that night in the cabin would not happen again until you were at least out of school and of age."

"But," Rose pressed for more,

"But," Dimitri sighed, "you're right. There were more selfish reasons for why I stayed." Dimitri looked down at their hands, and began tracing random patterns along Rose's palm. "I missed them so much." Dimitri whispered. His eyes glazed over as he though back to his family. "I had missed so much. They had all grown up so much, hand children… I had a nephew that I had never met and still he looked up to me like a super hero." His eyes began to get bloodshot, as if he were going to cry, but no tears came,

"Being there, seeing them, I wanted to be part of their lives again. They welcomed me, and I got so caught up in wanting to be a part of their lives that time seemed to escape me." Dimitri bent down and kissed Rose's hands,

"I'm sorry that I never kept in contact with you, there was no excuse. I figured you were better off anyway, with Lissa and your plans to accompany her to the court and to college."

Rose was beyond shocked. Dimitri, so strong and tough, so ready to fight and protect; never did Rose think that he'd be home sick. Of course he wanted to be with his family, it had been years since he'd seen them. Why hadn't she thought of that? She suddenly felt so guilty for ever doubting that his actions were anything but pure.

"But none of that happened." Rose whispered her voice tiny as she thought back to all the things she had to give up. Even Lissa had made sacrifices, holding off college just to help Rose through the pregnancy.

"What do you mean?" Dimitri looked up confused,

"Something happened while you were gone, complications, technically I haven't even been sanctioned as Lissa's guardian yet." Rose was suddenly nervous, her hands began to shake. Was it time to tell him the truth?

"I don't understand," Dimitri stood up, and Rose stood up with him, her uneasiness growing by the second, "if you weren't guarding anyone, how did you get so injured?" Rose gulped, and opened her mouth to tell him, but was suddenly sucked inside Lissa's head.

Fear rushed through the bond, as Lissa ran towards the infirmary, there was shouting and yelling from guardians and Lissa heard one shout, "They've broken the wards! They're coming in fast! Get everyone to safety." Horror broke through as Lissa and Rose both thought of Alexander.

"Rose!" Dimitri was shaking Rose violently as he broke her out of Lissa's head. Tears had already started falling down her cheeks, and she felt as though her knees were going to give out beneath her.

"Rose what's wrong?" Dimitri was trying very hard to stay calm, but the look on Rose's fact must have scared him.

"Alexander," she whispered. Her legs finally stopped shaking, and before Dimitri could respond, she was running. Her legs ran faster and harder than they ever had, and for once, Dimitri had trouble keeping up. The students of the academy had already been placed in safe zones, while the guardians began running towards the Infirmary.

"Please no," Rose muttered to herself, getting closer and closer. Finally the infirmary was in view, and guardians were putting their stakes back in their holsters. Four Strigoi lay dead by the door, and shouts from other guardians farther away told Rose that others had been killed.

Rose broke through the door, and ran towards the room where her baby was being kept.

"Lissa," She screamed, as she entered the room, her heart practically beating out of her chest.

"He's okay," Lissa said, walking slowly towards Rose. Lissa was visibly shaking as she stepped aside so Rose could see Alexander clearly. He slept in his crib, completely oblivious to the havoc outside, and Rose almost passed out from relief. Running to the crib, she scooped her baby up in her arms, and brought him close to her. Tears broke free as she finally let herself all the fear she had had for her child; she began to sob.

"Dimitri…" Lissa gasped, and Rose looked up. Dimitri looked at Rose, and then the baby, before understanding shattered his brain. A look of hurt filled his eyes as he turned on his heels and left before anyone could stop him.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to get this chapter up! It was really hard for me to write, but I promise the next two chapters should come along quickly and they will be a lot better! Remember to R/R and F/F! 3**_

Chapter 4

After the attack at the academy, the group left for the court right away. Two jets from the school separated the group in order to make it guarding easier. Obviously, Moroi were the first to go, and as Lissa and Adrian boarded the plane, Rose made the heart breaking decision to leave Alexander in their care.

"Rose," Adrian began, taking Alexander into his arms, "are you sure?" Rose nodded, trying to keep herself together.

"It makes the most sense. Two royal Moroi wouldn't look strange coming to the court with a lot of guardians, but two guardians would." It made sense, but it didn't make Rose hurt any less. Her motherly instincts to stay near her child were trying to override her guardian training. Alexander had felt like a puzzle piece, fitting so perfectly in her arms, and Rose would have done anything to keep him there. Unfortunately, she knew what she had to do, and with one last kiss to Alexander's sleeping brow, Rose let Adrian and Lissa board the plane.

"Nothing will happen to him," Adrian called from the plane, "I promise!" Waving good bye, Rose went back to the infirmary.

Giving the first jet an hour head start, Rose had time to pack up what little she had brought with her. Grabbing a small backpack, she began throwing the few clothes and baby supplies she had brought with her.

"Do you need any help?" Rose jumped. She had let herself become completely off guard, something exceptionally irresponsible considering there had been a Strigoi attack less than twenty-four hours ago. Rose turned to see Dimitri leaning against the opposite wall. It was the first time she had seen him since his discovery of Alexander.

"Sure," Rose muttered, trying to play it off as if nothing had happened, "I guess I have a bit more than I thought I did." Dimitri walked to the other side of the room quickly with those long, even strides of his, and began making the bed. Rose tried not to look at him, but couldn't help but watch as his hands worked with the sheets and covers, making a tight crisp made bed that probably could have had a quarter bounce off it just like in the old movies.

Dimitri turned his attention towards a book that had been lying by the bedside, and smiled,

"I can't believe it, Rose Hathaway reading? Wh-"whatever he was about to say was cut off as he picked up the book and recognized it; one of his old western novels. Rose walked closer to him as he opened to the inside cover of the book. His name scrawled in perfect writing. He thumbed over it, it's ink faded and smeared from the many times Rose had traced the letters with her fingertips.

"I used to read it aloud every night while I was pregnant." Rose said quietly. The corners of Dimitri's mouth perked up as if he were about to smile, but instead he cleared his throat, shut the book,

"Where is Alexander?" he asked, turning to face Rose. His eyes were glazed over as if he weren't actually seeing her, his face a perfect mask.

"He's with Adrian and Lissa," Rose said, quickly stuffing the last few items into her bag and zipping it up, "I figured it would be safer." Dimitri nodded, clearing his throat once more.

"Yes, his father will take great care of him." Rose's heart dropped,

"Father?"

"Adrian isn't the father?" Rose looked up at him, not sure whether to pass out from shock or anger,

"Why would Adrian be the obvious pick for father?"

"Because he's in love with you." Dimitri stated matter-of-factly.

"Just because he's in love with me doesn't mean I'm in love with him." Rose said, having trouble keeping her voice down.

"I never said you were in love with him." Ouch. Dimitri was implying that Rose had just been with Adrian because it would have been easy to do so.

"Don't talk to me like that."

"Like what?" Dimitri asked, faking innonce.

"Like I crawled into the first man's bed that would take me," Rose argued,

"Didn't you?" Dimitri was staring straight into her eyes, as if trying to read her very soul.

"You don't know anything about what happened after you left." Rose countered, still shocked by Dimitri's implications. He was hurt, she understood that, but the fact that Dimitri was implying that Rose was cheap was unlike him. Back when they had first started to get know one another, Dimitri had been the one to defend her, to make sure she didn't tarnish her reputation, and had faith that she wasn't when other people claimed she was sleeping around. The fact that Rose had lost that faith had been a great blow.

Dimitri opened his mouth as if he were about to argue, but a guardian Rose didn't recognize opened up the door and informed her and Dimitri that the second jet was ready for departure.

Rose and Dimitri walked to the jet in silence, and when they entered the Jet, they were practically the only people in it besides the two guardians that sat in the front, and the two that sat in the far back. In the understanding that Rose and Dimitri always had with one another, Rose knew that she was to take the window seat. Aside from Dimitri's long legs, he would take the aisle seat so that if for whatever reason a threat were to come about on the plane, he would be able to react quickly, and wouldn't need to climb over Rose.

Rose settled into her seat, taking off her shoes, and curling her toes,

"Ah, my feet," she mumbled, noticing that her ankles were swollen, "I figured after I gave birth, all this shit would be over with." Dimitri looked at Rose's ankles, but said nothing until after takeoff.

"Give me your feet." Dimitri commanded, and Rose looked at him strangely, but complied.

"Why?" Dimitri shrugged,

"Lay back." Rose gave him another questioning look, but his eyes told her that he wasn't in the mood for back talk. Listening to Dimitri, Rose ended up laying with her head again the window and a pillow, as her legs spread out, landing in Dimitri's lap. Dimitri began messaging her ankles,

"Working out should help reduce all the post-pregnancy swelling, you just have to keep the blood circulating. Keeping your legs above your heart should help too, but since we're not in the best position for this, this is about all we can do."

Rose was falling under the spell of Dimitri's touch. Where their skin contacted one another it was warm, igniting her veins and causing her heart beat to increase,

"How do you know all of this?" she asked, as her feet began feeling a lot better,

"My sister, Karolina was pregnant with my niece, Zoya while I was home," Dimitri seemed to be more focused on messaging Rose's ankles then his words, "I used to do this for her at night after particularly long days." Rose remembered how Dimitri used to talk about his family. His gaze was always far off and bitter sweet. Now, he was smiling, fondly remembering the recent memories.

"It must have been great to see them again." Rose commented, happy that Dimitri and she weren't fighting.

"It was," he sighed, "it was perfect. But it came with a price." Dimitri looked up at Rose, a meaningful look in his eyes; they implied that the price he was referring to was Rose herself.

"Tell me more about them." Rose said quietly, and when Dimitri didn't answer, she thought that maybe he hadn't heard her. But soon, he began to go into detail about each member.

Beginning with Karolina, he talked about how her pregnancy had led to a beautiful baby girl, and it led to talking about Zoya and her older brother, Dimitri's nephew, Paul. Paul had thought of Dimitri as a God. He saw Dimitri in the same way Rose did; larger than life. Next was his sister Sonya, who had become pregnant while Dimitri was in Baia. He joked about how horrible it was to live with two pregnant women, but you could tell that living with his family again had given him happiness beyond words. After Sonya, was Viktoria. The youngest sister, she was now in her final year at St. Basil's.

"She wanted to meet you," Dimitri said with a small laugh, "I'm sure you too would get into a lot of trouble together."

"I'm sure I would have loved her." Rose said with a sad smile, Dimitri nodded,

"You would have." Suddenly, the conversation dropped off. The lights for seat belts flashed on, as the pilot came on over the intercom and went on about landing and the weather outside. Dimitri dropped Rose's legs, and slapped his seat belt on. When the plane finally landed, Dimitri escorted Rose to the guest house she had been assigned to, and left without a word.

Rose sat on the couch, her emotions swirling into a jumble of guilt and loneliness. Dimitri had to be told that Alexander was his. Rose knew that it wasn't just her life in her hands anymore; it was Alexander's as well. If Dimitri decided to stay, at least Alexander would have his father, and if he didn't, at least it wouldn't be dragged out. Rose got up from her seat, and opened the door, only to find that Adrian was waiting for her.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I want to thank everyone for all of the reviews and favorites/follows! I wasn't really expecting people to like my story, so I'm very grateful Sorry it's been a while again. This was another hard chapter to write, but the next two are super promising, and we will actually see more of Dimitri! Remember to R/R and F/F!**

Chapter 5

"I was just about to knock," Adrian rubbed at the back of his neck, "can I come in?" Rose nodded, stepping to the side so that Adrian could enter. I guess Dimitri could wait. In the back of her mind, she could feel Lissa's amusement as she played with Alexander, Christian by her side, looking soft in loving instead of his usual snarky attitude.

"I'm guessing you already know where Alexander is," Adrian sighed, dropping down onto the couch and looking around, "You know I could probably get you better housing…"

"This is fine," Rose muttered, taking a seat next to Adrian, "it has everything I need."

"You and Alexander could always stay with me." Rose shook her head,

"I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Rose, you need someone who's going to take care of you."

"I can take care of myself just fine, thank you." Rose shot him a glare. How dare he insinuate that she couldn't handle everything on her own.

"What happens when you have to go take care of Lissa? Or when the baby cries in the middle of the night and you're too tired from training to even get out of bed?" He wasn't yelling, but there was definitely a hint of annoyance in his voice. "It's not just you I'm worried about."

"It's not your job to worry about me, Adrian."

"And it's not a sign of weakness to ask for help." Adrian was pleading. "Let me take care of you, Rose."

The conversation was turning into familiar territory; seven months ago, Adrian had said the same thing when he asked Rose to marry him.

"Adrian, we're not going through this again." She was begging more than telling.

"Why not, Rose? It makes perfect sense!" Rose rolled her eyes, suddenly feeling very tired.

"What, getting married? Pretending Alexander's yours? What happens when he starts growing up, when he starts looking more like Dimitri? Will you still love him?"

"Of course I will," Adrian looked hurt, "he's just as much a part of you as he is him."

"Alexander isn't your burden to bear."

"He's not a burden to me, Rose. I already love him as much as I love his mother." Adrian sat closer to Rose, grabbing her hands up in his, "I know that I'm a punk, and that I'm hard to get along with. I know that my habits are bad, but you know my heart is good. You know that I'm ready to commit to your son just as much as I'm ready to commit to you."

Rose nodded, her chest hurt. Adrian was a good man. Marrying him, becoming a family would have been so easy. Rose knew that if she let herself be with Adrian, that everything would be taken care of, her life, her son, they would live like royalty, hell, they WOULD be royalty. The light in Adrian's eyes told her that Adrian was as addicted to the idea as he was to booze and cigarettes; she didn't want to be someone's obsession.

"Adrian, I can't." the words were hard to get out, and it pained her to deny him. Adrian's face hardened, and he pushed her hands away.

"Belikov won't give you the things I'm offering. He won't give you a good life like I can. Hell, he won't even look at Alexander."

"He doesn't know." Rose said in a small voice. Adrian shot up from the couch,

"You haven't told him yet?"

"It hasn't been the right time," Rose began, jumping up from the couch as well, "I was about to go tell him, but then you stopped by.

"That's not even an excuse, Rose! You should have told him as soon as he got back!"

"I know!" Rose didn't know why she was yelling, but she suddenly felt frantic, "I was scared Adrian, I didn't know what to do!"

"It's simple Rose, you tell the man he has a fucking child!" Adrian was yelling now, and it made everything worse,

"I'm scared, Adrian!" she admitted, tears falling down her face. Rose hated how weak she had become. "I'm so afraid that I'll never see him again. I'm so afraid that I'll never love anyone as much as I loved Dimitri, and yet now I have Alexander. What am I supposed to do if he leaves again? Pretend I'm okay? Do I smile when Alexander gets older and his eyes are just like his father's? Do I tell him a great love story when he asks about his father? Do I make myself seem like an abandoned mother? Make Dimitri the villain? What do I do when Alexander grows up, and he blames me for not having a father?" Rose was begging for answers but she knew that Adrian couldn't answer. He walked over to Rose, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

"Nobody said this was going to be easy, Rose." He whispered into her ear, rubbing soft, comforting circles into her back, "you knew what you were getting into when you decided to keep Alexander." Rose shook her head sadly,

"No, I really don't think I did," Rose looked up at Adrian's face, "what if, in the end, Alexander hates me?" Adrian hugged her tighter,

"He could never hate you Rose! You're his mother, and it doesn't take eyes to see how much you've given up just making Alexander's birth possible."

"I want to see him." Rose pulled back from Adrian, "I want to see my son." Adrian nodded, putting his arm around Rose and walking with her to the door. Before she opened it, Adrian stopped,

"You have to tell Dimitri," When Rose looked at Adrian, is face was grave. "It doesn't matter how you feel or even how others feel about the matter. You can't let him leave again without telling him that Alexander is his. You have to make this right." Rose looked up at him with a worried expression,

"What if he feels trapped? What if telling him he has a son squashes all the potential for other things Dimitri wanted to do?" Adrian shook his head,

"It doesn't matter, Rose. You need to let him know what he left behind. It's going to be hard for both of you. In fact, it's going to hurt, but I know that if I were in his position, I would want to know about my own child."

"What if he hates me?"

"Then he hates you." Adrian said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Like I said, it doesn't matter how you feel in the end. You can't hide a man's child from him just because you want to be spared the tears. It's time to grow up."

"I've grown up a lot!" Rose countered, shrugging Adrian's arm off of her shoulders. Adrian nodded,

"I know you have, but you're still back in high school when it comes to your feelings with Dimitri." Rose nodded, and they continued to walk off towards Lissa's, Adrian swung his arm back around her,

"I love him, Adrian." Rose's voice was small, and she knew that her words would hurt Adrian, but she had to make sure it was clear, "I love him, and as much as I want him to be a part of my life with Alexander, the possibility of rejection hurts me so badly that sometimes I feel like leaving things as they are now is easier."

"So you would just let him leave?" Adrian asked, trying to keep his voice down whenever a random person would walk by, "You would let him leave without knowing how you feel about him or about his fatherhood just to keep yourself from heart break?" Rose shrugged, avoiding the answer,

"I'm not avoiding heart break, my heart breaks every day that he's here." Adrian let out a loud, exasperated sigh,

"I'm done trying to convince you Rose, this Is an order. You have to tell Dimitri and you have to tell him soon. You're being an irrational, spoiled brat and if he doesn't know by the end of the month, I'm going to tell him myself." Adrian's eyes narrowed as he looked at Rose, trying to convey how serious he was about the matter, "I'm sure Dimitri would rather find out from you, rather than me."

Rose nodded, understanding that she would have to put all of her fears and selfish urges to the side. Nearing Lissa's door, they could faintly hear an infant's crying, followed by Lissa's yelling;

"Is the bottle ready yet? The poor kids probably starving!" followed by Christian's yelling back,

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Rose and Adrian opened the door, about to step into the fray of feeding time. Rose put her hand on Adrian's arm, a determined look crossing her face,

"I'll tell him soon, I promise."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

It turned out that motherhood was a little more difficult than Rose thought. It had been a week since Rose had talked to Adrian and suddenly Alexander was a month old. Chubby and adorable, Rose constantly found herself cooing over her child's growth. He would sleep off and on for large amounts of time, but usually not solidly through the night. Rose hadn't realized that when people said that infants ate a lot, it meant every two or three hours.

But when she held Alexander, and he wrapped his small hand around her finger and gripped tight, all the exhaustion was worth it. When she picked up him up, and brought him close to her face, the smile he gave her made any day better. Rose had just put Alexander down when her phone vibrated. Tiptoeing away from Alexander's crib and down the hall, she finally considered herself to be a fair enough distance from Alexander's room to be able to use her phone.

There were three a missed call from Dimitri, she hadn't felt the vibrations while she was rocking Alexander to sleep. It had been a week since they had returned back from the academy, and Rose had used that time to be with her child. She knew that training needed to start up, and that she needed to start getting into shape so that she could get back to being a guardian as soon as possible; but the thought of leaving Alexander frightened her. Ever since the attack at the academy, Rose spent most nights asleep in the rocking chair in Alexander's room, too afraid to leave him.

"You'll be no use to him if you can't fight properly." She told herself, and as she dialed Dimitri's number, she realized that Alexander hadn't been the only reason she wasn't going to practice. She had promised Adrian that she would tell Dimitri the truth, and she knew that the next time she saw him; she'd have to do it. Putting up the phone to her ear, it only rang once before there was a knock at the door. Closing her phone, she walked over carefully, silently, and there was another, more urgent knock. Nervously, Rose looked back at Alexander's room, hoping the knocking wouldn't wake him. Opening up the door a crack, Rose peered out and then let out a relieved sigh that she hadn't been aware she was holding. Opening the door wider, Dimitri walked in,

"You didn't answer your phone," he said gruffly, the look in his eyes showed that he was annoyed.

"I was putting Alexander down," Rose said quietly, pressing a finger to her lips, telling Dimitri to lower his voice.

"When I call, you need to answer."

"I was busy." Dimitri's movement was twitchy and nervous as he rubbed the back of his neck,

"I thought something had happened." Rose suddenly understood. Dimitri assumed that if she hadn't picked up after three calls that something bad must be keeping her from the phone. It was almost comical that it was actually just a cranky infant.

"I'm sorry," she said, a small smile on her face, "next time I'll be sure to answer. Dimitri stepped closer, his features growing soft, his hard brown eyes melting into soft chocolate. Bringing his hand up to her face, he thumbed at the dark circles that Rose knew were under her eyes.

"You haven't been sleeping well." He said it without question,

"Ironically, he prefers a human schedule." Rose laughed it off, but Dimitri was right, she hadn't been sleeping. Even if Alexander was out for the night, Rose usually found herself too restless to sleep.

"Why don't you have the princess look after her, or your mother? I heard she's at the court for some royal conference." Rose shook her head,

"I can take care of him; I don't need anyone's help." Dimitri nodded, lowering his hand, and taking a step back.

"As stubborn as ever, Rose." He sighed, taking a seat on the couch, "asking for help doesn't make you weak, you know."

"I'm not being stubborn," she argued, "I just don't want to bother anyone; I told everyone I could do this, and I can!"

"It takes two to get into this kind of situation; this job isn't meant for just one person." Dimitri said calmly.

"What did you need, Dimitri?" Rose asked, exasperated, Dimitri looked a bit hurt, and confused, but quickly recovered,

"I came to ask when you wanted to start your guardian training," Rose began ringing her hands together,

"Already?"

"It's been a week," Dimitri said with a straight face, "you've taken more than enough time off, it's time to get training again." Rose looked down the hall, at Alexander's door,

"I just figured I would get to have a little bit more time with him."

"You knew what you were getting into when you chose to become a mother and continue being Lissa's guardian."

"I really didn't think it would be this hard to leave him," Rose sighed, once more looking back at Alexander's door, a sad smile playing at her lips.

"Classic Rose Hathaway," Dimitri muttered, "always jumping into the fray without thinking about the consequences."

"That's not fair!" Rose argued, "I did think about this! I had nine months to think about this!" she motioned around the room, "and I did it all by myself, I didn't need anyone to get me where I am."

"And now you have a child to protect just as much as you need to protect the princess," Dimitri said in that irritatingly calm voice, "you can't be in two places at once, and you can't always protect both of them, no matter how good you are."

"I don't need to hear it from you." Rose said through clenched teeth, "you have no idea what it's been like for me, how hard it's been." Dimitri features softened, but he kept his face otherwise composed, still trying to maintain that guardian mask,

"No, I don't," He agreed, "but it doesn't matter now, you'll train with me, and once that's done I'll be back to Russia and you'll be back to what you were meant to do, protect the princess." Rose had to keep her mouth from gaping open,

"You're leaving again?" Dimitri nodded,

"I thought I had something to come back to, I guess I was wrong." Rose fought the tears that were stinging her eyes, refusing to look weak,

"You are really just going to throw all of this away?"

"There's nothing to throw away, you made your choice," Dimitri looked back at Alexander's room, his face looked hurt, if not longing.

"I didn't make a choice, Dimitri, Alexander's father-"

"I don't want to hear it," Dimitri cut her off; "I don't want to know. I don't want to know anything about the father or you child. I just want to do my job." Rose recoiled from his cold tone,

"You're being unreasonable, Dimitri, you need to let me explain." Suddenly, Dimitri's guardian mask was shattered, as all his emotions seemed to burst forth; it scared Rose to see him so vulnerable, as he looked at her with sadness, and anger.

"I loved you, Roza." His voice was almost pleading, as if he were begging her to understand his words, "I loved you so much that it hurt. I came back, I made my mistakes by staying in Russia, for not contacting you, but I came back."

"Dimitri I know-"

"No, you don't know!" he yelled, his Russian accent getting thicker with the sadness in his voice, "I came and now you have a child, and I hate myself because I hate him!" Rose paled, speechless, tears began to fall, her strength gone, and she sunk to the floor,

"You hate him?"

"I love him, because he is a part of you, but I hate that I wasn't able to be the one who gave him to you."

"Dimitri,"

"No," Dimitri shook his head, "I don't want to hear anything. I don't want to hear about the father, I don't want to hear about Alexander, and I don't want to hear about this discussion anymore. I will protect you with my life; I will protect him with my life. I will train you, but that's it. Let me go, because it hurts to even look at you these days."

"You have to know I love you." Rose breathed, unsure of what to say or how to fix everything,

"It doesn't matter anymore." Dimitri said gruffly, his emotions were now tucked far away his guardian mask firmly back in place, only his eyes betrayed him as he looked at her once more, before turning to leave,

"Practice will be just as it was at Vladimir's, early in the morning, and once at night, we start tomorrow." As he shut the door, Alexander began to cry.

Rose pulled her child from his crib, and sat in the rocking chair. Rocking back and forth, she sought comfort in Alexander's warmth as she let herself cry out all of her heartache.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Sorry guys that the chapters have been coming in slowly lately, with summer ending I've been hanging out with everyone I can before College and my job has picked up a bit as well. Luckily, Chapter 8 is just going through my lovely beta (RozaRocks) and it will be ready for upload within this week as well! And in honor of being super slow I've made this chapter super long! So enjoy, remember to R/R and F/F and have a lovely week! -Rosa**_

Chapter 7

The next day, training began. Neither Rose nor Dimitri talked about the night before, or what was said, but the static from the fight still sparked between them. It had been decided that Adrian would watch Alexander during the morning exercises, and then Christian and Lissa would have him at the end of the day.

As the week went on, Rose found her body getting more exhausted. The double training sessions made her muscles burn, and strained her body in ways that it hadn't been in a long time. Alexander had also started crying more and more throughout the night, and Rose found that her sleep schedule had become practically nonexistent.

In fact, by the end of the week, Rose could barely walk up the steps of Adrian's house,

"Morning sunshine," Adrian yawned, as Rose walked through, cradling Alexander from the frigid air.

"Hey Adrian," she yawned, switching Alexander's sleeping bundle into Adrian's arms.

"Little dhampir…" he looked Rose up and down, "you don't look very well." Rose rolled her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself,

"I'm just a little tired. A run in this cold weather should wake me up," Rose laughed it off, but she knew she wasn't fooling Adrian,

"You need to be careful," his expression had turned worried, "you're not indestructible." Rose laughed,

"I gotta get going, Adrian." Rose turned to go to practice with Adrian calling after her, saying he was serious.

When she got to the gym, Dimitri seemed worried as well,

"Maybe we should skip practice today."

"No, believe me I'm fine, just a little tired." Dimitri looked at her sceptically, but finally agreed,

"Fine, go out and do your laps." Rose nodded, and we to walk out to the track, when Dimitri grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back, he smiled,

"I'll come with you."

Running around the track did exactly what Rose thought it would, as she picked up her pace the wind blew through her hair and the brisk air cleared the haze that had wrapped around her mind.

"You look better," Dimitri was smiling down at Rose, easily keeping pace with her laboured running.

"Told you I was fine," Rose smiled back up at him, her heart skipping at his easy smile.

"You're slowing down your pace," Dimitri commented, with a coy upturn of his lips, causing Rose to blush, and pushed her to run faster. When the running was over, they did some stretching and went into weight training.

"Have you been around the court at all since you've gotten back?" Dimitri asked whilst swapping out the weights for heavier ones,

"Not really," Rose grunted, pushing through the pain in her arms to do a few more reps, "usually after our work outs I go home and take care of Alexander, I report back to the head of guardian security on my progress with training, and then bring Alexander with me to Lissa's until I have to come back here." Dimitri nodded,

"Why?"

"It's nothing." Dimitri said rather quickly.

"What?" Rose sat up from the bench, looking Dimitri dead in the face, "what is it you're not telling me?" Dimitri let out a sigh,

"It's slowly getting out about your pregnancy." Fear shot through Rose, she tried to sound indifferent, but she knew that her voice wavered as she pulled on her pony tail,

"It would come out eventually." She shrugged, "I couldn't hide a child forever, not to mention most people already had their speculations when I didn't immediately become Lissa's guardian." Dimitri nodded, looking anywhere but Rose's face,

"There's more, isn't there." It wasn't a question. When Dimitri finally looked at her, there was uncertainty in his eyes,

"There's been some gossip."

"What do you mean gossip? You mean who knocked me up?" Dimitri shook his head,

"There has been gossip about Alexander." Rose's heart stopped,

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"They're saying that he's 'special'." Rose could feel the fear rush through her veins, strangling her heart and lungs.

"I don't understand."

"Rose, why were strigoi after Alexander back at the academy?" Dimitri's voice was a dangerous combination of curiosity and scrutiny.

"You think I did something bad," Rose narrowed her eyes, "those are your 'Rose, what did you get yourself into' eyes." Dimitri looked shocked, and then angry,

"What did you get yourself into?"

"Nothing! Why does there have to be trouble?"

"Rose, if Alexander is just a normal little boy, what would the strigoi want with him? They can't turn him, he's not royalty." Dimitri paused, "is he?"

"No!" Rose was shouting now, fully outraged, "he's just Alexander, he's just my son!"

"You didn't something stupid did you, Rose?"

"I do a lot of stupid things," Rose said dryly, Dimitri's patience was visibly wearing thin,

"Rose, I'm not playing games here, this isn't just about you, it's about Alexander."

"You think I don't know that?" Rose's voice was so dark that she barely recognized it, "you don't think I understand how much danger my child is in each and every day? How much danger Lissa could be in because of a mistake I made?" Rose shook her head, "No one thinks that I can handle my child or Lissa, but the fact is that no one gets it as much as I do. All the people I love the most are hurt or in danger because of a mistake that I wasn't even aware that I could make."

"I never said that I didn't think you could handle yourself," Dimitri said quietly, wrapping an arm around Rose, "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You think I did something to my own son." Rose said, shrugging Dimitri's arm away, "what kind of person do you think I am?"

"Roza," he breathed, hurt flashing across his face, "I could never imagine I'd come back to a situation like this."

"Well I didn't expect to be in this situation."

"It's just, you have Alexander, and you're not saying who the father is, and people are talking about how you used the child to help with some sort of experiment-"

"Experiment?!" Rose shot up from the bench, lowering her face right in front of Dimitri's, "People think that I'm using my child like a lab rat?" Dimitri moved uncomfortably under her gaze.

"They believe that you're helping the queen with trying to create a new, stronger dhampir race."

"These royals need to stop watching dramas." Rose muttered, "That's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard of." Dimitri shrugged,

"It's not just the royals, guardians are talking about it as well, the whole place is stirred up since the attack at the academy, and it can't be helped. Like I said, why would strigoi want to harm a normal child?" Rose picked up her gym bag, downing a bottle of water before answering,

"Didn't anyone think that maybe the main target wasn't my child, but me instead?"

"What?"

"Well I did take down a whole bunch of them back when they attacked the academy, and I took down those two back on winter break. Not many guardians get marks on them before graduation, let alone all the marks I got. Maybe they found me to be a threat, and went after what they knew would cripple me most." Dimitri opened his mouth to argue, but then closed it, unable to respond.

"No one ever thinks of the simple answer, they automatically go for what would be the juiciest story." Rose shook her head, "I can't believe you let yourself get caught up in such stupid shit. I can't believe you thought so little of me." Rose knew she sounded confident, but inside, her mind and heart were at full on war. People were slowly starting to discover her pregnancy; it wouldn't be long until people started demanding answers. How long would she be able to hide the truth? She hadn't planned on telling Dimitri about Alexander, not after his outburst, but she was only kidding herself. If people were already getting wind that there was something special about Alexander, it wouldn't be long until people started banging down her door to take a look at the "mystery child".

"I'm sorry, Roza." Dimitri said quietly, standing up and taking Rose's hand in his own, her breathing hitched at his touch, "I haven't been myself, I've been horrible towards you, and I shouldn't be letting my feelings towards this whole situation cloud my knowledge of who you are as a person." His face had gotten closer to Rose's with each word he spoke, to the point where their noses were a whisper away from touching, " I know you would never endanger your child or Lissa on purpose. I never doubted that you would be a dedicated and astounding guardian," his breath caught in his throat, and he had to clear it many times, "as well as a mother." Time froze; Dimitri's gaze tore into Rose, exposing heart and soul, as she was wrapped up by those warm brown eyes. Her lips felt dry, and every hair on her body stood on edge, her body ached for him, as did her heart.

Pushing all her feelings deep inside herself, she merely kissed Dimitri's cheek, and then pushed past him to the changing room, refusing to look back.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Rose picked Alexander up from Adrian's and left quickly, before Adrian could start questioning her. The walk was short but brutal as Rose felt her exhaustion coming back, ten-fold.

"Hello, sunshine." Rose cooed, deciding that staying focused on Alexander would help her stay awake. "I hope Uncle Adrian took great care of you today." Alexander's eyes twinkled as he looked up at Rose, happy cooing came from his own mouth, his eyes were slowly looking more and more like Dimitri's.

"You're gonna be a lady-killer like your daddy," Rose muttered before a large yawn ripped itself out of her mouth. Alexander soon yawned as well.

"Are you tired just like mama?" Rose smiled, finally arriving home; she made her way straight for Alexander's room.

Rocking Alexander to sleep was simple enough, but Rose found herself fighting to stay awake. Carefully tucking Alexander in, she tiptoed out into the kitchen, finding she ravenous. Downing two bowls of cereal, Rose then made her way to the living room, collapsing onto the couch.

Suddenly, Rose realized she was sweating, wiping sweat from her brow, she began to shiver. Blankets and long sleeves couldn't keep the cold out, and Rose found that she could no longer sit up without feeling dizzy or on the verge of passing out. A feeling of vertigo hit her as her phone began to ring.

"Hello?"

"Hey, I was wondering if you had had lunch yet, did you want to bring Alexander over now? Christian was about to cook up some hamburgers." The thought of food suddenly made Rose sick to her stomach,

"Actually, Liss, I was thinking of staying in tonight." Lissa paused for a moment on the phone,

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Dimitri's just kicking my butt at the gym; I'm just going to rest up a bit."

"Adrian did say you looked pretty exhausted today…"

"Nice to know you guys are talking about me when I'm not there." Rose said only half sarcastically, "I'll be fine, and Alexander just hasn't really been sleeping through the night recently, that's all."

"Maybe Christian and I should take him then," Lissa pondered, "maybe you should have some time to yourself, you've been working really hard lately."

"I'm fine, I don't need any help." Rose knew she was coming of harsh, but for some reason, Lissa's voice just sounded so loud, and the lights in the room were starting to make Rose's head hurt.

"Call me if you need anything," Lissa said, and Rose thanked her, hanging up.

After many failed attempts, Rose was finally able to push herself off of the couch, only to regret it immediately. Rose didn't even make two steps when a dizzy spell hit her. The world whirled around her, and soon she was on the ground, darkness touching the sides of her vision. Rose cursed to herself, realizing she was about to pass out.

When her consciousness came back, it was only for a few minutes, her phone was ringing, but it sounded so far away, she fought to wake up, to answer it, but her exhaustion soon took the better of her, and she was swept under a wave of darkness once more. Unlike sleeping, the darkness seemed to last forever, and it was dreamless, she could still feel the aches in her body, and felt like a prisoner inside her mind, unable to open her eyes or use her senses but unable to sleep as well. Somewhere in the background she thought she heard a bang or a crash, but she couldn't be sure. The blackness dragged her deeper, and soon she couldn't even think, she was completely out of it.

Rose didn't know how long she was out, but when she started to come to, it was to the cries of Alexander. She felt like she was fighting through quicksand to reach full consciousness, and when she did, Alexander's crying had stopped. Rose found that she was no longer on the floor, but in her bed. Confused, she jumped out of bed, and flew to Alexander's room, ready to attack. A large figure was by the crib, and it took her a minute to realize that the figure wasn't a threat; it was Dimitri.

Turning to look at her, Rose saw that Dimitri was cradling Alexander in his arms, lightly holding a bottle to the infant's lips as he hungrily ate. Dimitri gave a small smile,

"I told you not to over work yourself. You should go back to bed, you have a fever."

"How did you get in here?" Rose was taking the whole scene in. Dimitri had cast his duster aside, and it lay across the rocking chair, a tight black t-shirt barely hid the muscles of his torso that seemed to want to break free of the fabric.

"I kicked the door down." Dimitri said it as if it were obvious.

"You broke my door!?"

"You wouldn't pick up your phone." Dimitri shrugged, looking down at Alexander. Rose couldn't help but notice that for once, Dimitri wasn't wound up. His shoulder's weren't tense, and his face had gone soft, his gaze was a mixture of awe and content, and Rose noticed that Dimitri pulled Alexander a little closer, "he's beautiful." He muttered, leaning his head down, Dimitri pressed a gentle kiss upon Alexander's head. Rose found that she was crying. This was it.

"Dimitri," he looked up, the small smile on his face dropped as he looked at Rose's teary-eyed face, "Alexander, he's yours."


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Told you guys I would get this out soon! I'd like to thank all of you for the amazing reviews! I can't believe all the great feedback I've been getting! Keep it up! And don't forget to R/R and F/F! **_

_**~Love Rosa**_

Chapter 8

Dimitri stood staring at Rose, his brows furrowed in concern,

"Rose, maybe you should go back to sleep, you're not making sense…" Rose shook her head, although the thought of sleep was very appealing,

"I'm telling you the truth, Alexander is your son." Dimitri looked like Rose had punched him.

"Stop it," he demanded, "you're sick, you're not feeling well. I told you not to over work yourself. You need to go back to bed and get some rest."

"You don't believe me?"

"Rose, you know that we can't have children together." Dimitri now looked scared, "you can't really think Alexander is mine? Are you trying to hurt me?"

"Hurt you?" Dimitri nodded.

"You know," he stumbled over his words, "you know I'd give anything to father your child; to be able to have a family with you," he shook his head, "but it's impossible. It's scientifically impossible." Rose sighed, unable to believe that she had looked over this small detail. She had always been afraid of how angry Dimitri would be for her not telling him, she never thought that he wouldn't believe her.

"The rumours," she began, unsure how to go about things, "they talked about my child being special, right?" Dimitri stood there, frozen, Rose walked over to him, taking the bottle from his hand, and placing it on the nightstand. She then took Alexander, and burped him before returning him to Dimitri's shaking arms. "They say my child's special, and it's true, but not because I was part of some crazy experiment, it was because I was able to have a child after being with another dhamphir." Dimitri's eyes were quickly turning red, as he blinked rapidly.

"He can't be…"

"But he is, Dimitri, he's your son." Rose felt the tears coming faster, "The only people that know are Lissa, Adrian, Alberta, and the nurse back at the academy." Dimitri laughed humourlessly.

"Alberta?" Rose's face scrunched up.

"Yeah, I'm still wondering how she seemed to figure everything out…" Dimitri was looking down at Alexander now, a whole new look of wonder and happiness seemed to radiate off of him, he held Alexander as if he were made of glass and diamonds, so fragile and more precious than anything he'd ever seen.

"Why didn't you tell me?" his voice was quiet, and it wasn't angry, it was sad; broken.

"You had already left by the time that I found out."

"You didn't try to get a hold of me?"

"I didn't know how long you were going to be gone," Rose pleaded her case, though she already knew how wrong she had been to hide it from him.

"When I came back, you had just had him, why didn't you tell me then? It's been over a month." Rose was vaguely aware that tears had started to fall from Dimitri's eyes, her heart broke for him, and even a little for herself.

"How was I supposed to know what you were doing back? It had been nine months without word; I figured you had moved on, that you didn't need an ex-student with a child to burden you."

"How could my own son be a burden? How could you be a burden?!" his voice was rising, and the anger Rose had been waiting for suddenly reared its ugly head.

"I don't know," Rose couldn't think, she was so tired, but she knew that she needed to get it out, and she knew that everything Dimitri said was justified, she had messed up, "at first I was so angry. When I found out that you had been gone all that time because of your own reasons, not because of your grandmother, I was so afraid that you would just do the same to Alexander, and I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't going to let you abandon our son like you abandoned me."

"I would never…" Dimitri was getting exasperated, "you knew how much I wanted Alexander to be mine, how much I despised myself because I couldn't be… why didn't you tell me then?"

"Because by then, you had already talked about going back to Russia, I didn't want to keep you here if you didn't want to be, I didn't want you running away. By then, you'd already thrown both of us away."

Suddenly, Dimitri did something that Rose never thought she'd see; he began to sob. Large sobs wracked his body, his large shoulders shaking as more and more tears began falling down his face, cradling his Alexander, keeping him close. Over and over he kept muttering, "мой сын, мой сын…" when finally Rose had to pull him away. Setting Alexander's sleeping body back into the crib; Rose took Dimitri by the hand, and led him to her bedroom, where he slowly crawled into bed with Rose.

Wrapping his arms around her, he buried his face deep into the crook of her neck, dampening her skin with the tears that still stained his cheeks. Rose pulled him closer, letting her fingers run through his hair.

"I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you." His voice came out muffled, "that I couldn't take care of you during your pregnancy."

"It's okay," Rose said softly, "you're here now." Dimitri untangled himself from Rose, manoeuvring himself so that he was looking straight at her,

"I won't ever leave again." He grabbed her hand, pressing a kiss to each finger, "if you'll have me, I'd like nothing more to be by your side, to be a proper father to our son." Rose smiled,

"I couldn't ask for anything better." Dimitri smiled, pressing a soft kiss to Rose's lips, and wrapping her in a tight embrace.

"So, we're okay?" Rose asked hesitantly, the weight of the day pressing down on her. Dimitri chuckled,

"You've given me a beautiful child, I didn't think I could love you any more than I had before, and I never thought I could love someone as much as I loved you; I was wrong on both accounts." Rose could keep back the huge smile that spread across her face. Everything was going to work out; everything was going to be okay.

"Get some sleep," Dimitri pressed a kiss to her temple, "I was being serious, you've over worked yourself, if you don't get any rest, and you'll get seriously sick. I'll take care of Alexander; you'll both be safe with me here."

Rose wanted to protest, but soon, Dimitri began to sing in a soft low voice, in a Russian tune that Rose found comforting, and soon drifted off to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Thanks again for the awesome reviews! You guys have been great! I should be finishing up Chapter 10 today and then it's off to my lovely Beta! Enjoy! Review, Follow, and Favorite! ~~Rosa**_

Chapter 9

When Rose awoke, she was alone. Sitting up in bed, she stretched, once again feeling the burn in her muscles. Pulling her hair up into a high bun, she went to go check on Alexander. The exhaustion she had felt yesterday was almost completely gone and the ill feelings she had yesterday were non-existent. A small smile played on her lips as she thought back to last night; she had finally told Dimitri the truth, and now he was going to stay. Turning into Alexander's room, she had to fight not to let out a surprised gasp.

Dimitri sat in the rocking chair, his hair falling out of its pony tail; he slept peacefully, in his arms Alexander slept soundly. Rose leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms in front of her. The sun was just starting to set outside, allowing dull rays of light to spill across Dimitri's face. Rose slowly and quietly made her way to the rocking chair, being careful not to wake Alexander; she placed a soft kiss on Dimitri's lips. The prickle of stubble tickled her face, and she found that she somewhat enjoyed Dimitri without a clean shave.

Dimitri's body stiffened at the touch, and then softened as he kissed back,

"Roza," his voice was low and gruff, filled with the haze of sleep.

"Morning comrade" Dimitri opened his eyes, letting his mouth easily fall into a half smile. In Rose's sweatpants she felt the vibrate of her phone,

"Shit," she stepped back from Dimitri and Alexander and pulled out her phone.

"Lissa" Dimitri guessed, Rose nodded,

"She had wanted me to call her last night, she's probably worried." Dimitri nodded, gingerly getting out of the rocking chair. Rose went in the other room to answer her phone.

"Morning" Rose said cheerfully,

"Rose!" Lissa's voice wasn't angry, but it was louder than usual, "are you okay?"

"Of course I am," Rose rolled her eyes, "I told you I just needed some rest." Lissa sighed,

"Dimitri called me last night when he couldn't get a hold of you; I didn't know what to think." Rose let out an exasperated sigh,

"Both of you are so dramatic,"

"We were worried about you."

"Yeah well now he'll have to worry about fixing my front door."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that Dimitri kicked in my door when I didn't answer my phone last night." Lissa laughed,

"It's not funny, Liss! Now I don't have a front door!"

"You should have answered your phone then."

"I was sleeping!"

"Sleeping so much that you couldn't answer your phone or hear a 6'7'' Russian pounding down your door?" Rose paused,

"Yeah….so?"

"You really must have been exhausted."

"Rose?" Dimitri called from Alexander's room,

"Who's that?" Lissa asked over the phone, Rose ignored her,

"Yeah"

"Where do you keep the diapers?"

"Rose, who is that" Lissa exclaimed,

"There's a new box in the closet if there aren't any in the changing table!" Rose called back, "You don't have to change him though, I can do it!" Dimitri poked his head out from Alexander's room, a smile on his lips,

"No, I've got it."

"Are you sure? I know it's not the most pleasant thing to do." Dimitri laughed,

"I want to." Rose rolled her eyes, smiling,

"Whatever you say comrade."

"Comrade! Is Dimitri over there right now?" Rose finally pulled her attention back to the phone, and though Lissa wasn't in the room with her, she could feel a blush forming on her cheeks,

"Maybe,"

"He is there, isn't he? Isn't it a little early?" Rose looked down at her feet, feeling awkward,

"Well, he's been here since last night."

"He spent the night?" Rose was getting tired of this conversation,

"He was looking after Alexander while I got some rest, that's all." The whole cuddles session before she went to sleep didn't seem like an important detail to give. There was silence on the other line, and then finally Lissa spoke, her voice quiet,

"Did you tell him?"

"Yeah," Rose let out a breathy laugh, "I told him."

"And guessing by the fact that he didn't run back to Russia, I take it he took it well."

"Way better than expected Liss," Rose couldn't fight the smile that spread across her lips, "I think things might actually work out."

"You'll have to tell me over dinner tonight, no don't try to argue, Christian is making that meatloaf you love so much, bring Dimitri, it'll be nice." Rose bit her lip,

"Don't you think that's rushing things?"

"You're right; the only person he even said more than a sentence to back at the academy was you. Ask him if he wants to come, if he doesn't, no big deal." Rose nodded to herself,

"Okay, I'll see you tonight."

"Bye," Rose hung up, and walked back into Alexander's room, finding that the boy's diaper had been changed, and taken out of his night clothes.

"Everything okay with Lissa?" Dimitri asked slipping tiny socks onto Alexander's feet.

"Yeah, she was just inviting me over for dinner tonight," Rose paused, "she said that you're welcome to join us." Dimitri turned to look back at her,

"Do you want me to come?" Rose shrugged,

"Only if you want to, I don't want to make you do anything you don't want to."

"Well, the princess is your best friend, it's only right that I start to get acquainted with her."

"Well, if you're going to get to know her, you probably should stop calling her princess."

"But she is a princess, that's her respective title."

"I never called you by your respective title," Rose pointed out,

"You never call anyone by their respective title," Dimitri laughed, Rose narrowed her eyes,

"Was that supposed to be an insult?" Dimitri picked Alexander off of the changing table, cradling him with ease as he walked over to Rose, planting a kiss on her lips,

"I would never insult you." Rose smiled, returning the kiss, when it broke, Dimitri winked, and walked towards the kitchen, "Now go get dressed, Rose, we're going to be late for practice." Rose let out a dramatic sigh, but went back to her room to change.

Dimitri walked with Rose to Adrian's house; he was on the phone with a man about replacing Rose's door as they walked up to Adrian's home.

"Little Dhampir," Adrian greeted, his smile faltering slightly as he saw Dimitri, "what is he doing here?"

"We're just going to go to train, that's all." Adrian laughed,

"I'm guessing you told him?"

"How do you know?"

"His aura is so happy it's disgusting," Adrian rolled his eyes, "you both have been sulking around here since we got back, and now both of your auras are beaming like it's Christmas." Rose shrugged,

"So you're right, I told him, is that a problem?" Adrian shrugged, and while he was faking that it was nothing, Rose knew better.

"No it's not a problem, Rose; you saved me the trouble of having to tell him." Rose decided not to push the subject, she handed Alexander to Adrian, kissed her son goodbye,

"Thank you for watching him."

"Of course," Adrian gave a pointed look to Dimitri, "I've always been here for you, and I always will be." He raised his voice. Dimitri paused, his conversation on the phone, a dark look flashed in his eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it had come, and with that, Rose said her goodbyes to Adrian and Alexander and headed off to the gym with Dimitri.

Just like yesterday, Dimitri came outside with me to run, only this time, he stood off to the side, a western novel in hand; he only looked up to comment on Rose's pace. Rose would immediately quicken her pace after being yelled at, but would find that she couldn't help but slow down as she looked at Dimitri. Though things had been rough between them lately, and it had been nine months since the cabin, since he had been her mentor, things seemed to have just picked up where they left off.

There was a new edge to the relationship between the two of them. Unlike before, Dimitri's attitude towards Rose had changed slightly. His posture had relaxed and his tough love was now done with an easy smile. Rose was finally eighteen, she had graduated, there was nothing wrong with their relationship now, she realized, they were free to be together, even if people wouldn't be comfortable with it.

"Pick up the pace, Hathaway!" Dimitri yelled, breaking Rose out of her thoughts once more.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Are you and the Russian cradle robber coming to dinner tonight?" Adrian's voice came through the speaker of Rose's phone as she changed from her gym clothes back into her normal clothes, "You were out all day with him."

"He was showing me routine posts for around the court, it took longer than expected." Rose pulled her shirt over her head, "I'm sorry, I should have called."

"Why would you need to know any of that? You're going to be Lissa's guardian." Adrian sounded annoyed, and Rose bit her lip,

"Yeah, but I won't be her only guardian, since we're the same age I'll usually be by her side, but if I get posted in an outside position I'll need to know every inch of the court."

"Whatever," Adrian mumbled, "I'll just head over to Lissa's with Alexander, and I'll see you later." Adrian hung up. Rose let out a deep sigh; she knew she'd be getting a lecture from Adrian tonight.

When Rose left the locker room, Dimitri was waiting for her,

"Ready?" he asked, a small smile on his face,

"Only if you are," Rose smiled hesitantly, "you know you really don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I want to," he reassured her; "I want to be a part of your life, of our sons life." Rose laced her fingers with Dimitri's, and put her head on his shoulder as they made their way to Lissa's.

"People aren't going to be happy," Rose sighed, "when this gets out, a lot of people are going to judge this relationship."

"So let them," Dimitri said calmly, "it doesn't matter, we were going to make this work before I left for Russia, and I still plan on doing that now." Dimitri stopped walking; they were at Lissa's front door. Bringing Rose close to him, he wrapped his hands around her waist, and put his forehead on hers,

"I love you." Rose brushed her lips against Dimitri's,

"I love you too, comrade." The kiss was short, and sweet, but it held all the love in the world. It gave Rose the strength she thought she would need to get through this dinner party. She knew Adrian would chaste her, and that Christian would probably be a bit surprised, but she knew that with Dimitri by her side, she could do anything.

At least, that's what she thought, until Tasha opened the door.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: Sorry that it's been so long since I last updated! School has started back up for me and since I'm a photography major, I have about 8 hours of class a day followed by studio/editing/printing so I really have little to no time on my hands! I'll try to update whenever I can but I can't promise it will be regularly. Just know, I will finish the story, I promise! Thanks to everyone for Reading and reviewing, and for all the favoirtes and follows! Keep it up! 3**_

Chapter 10

"Hey!" Tasha greeted Rose and Dimitri cheerfully, opening the door wider, "come in, come in!"

Rose reluctantly followed Tasha through the house, slightly annoyed that she was not only coming to dinner, but that she had answered the door when it wasn't even her own house. Beside her, Dimitri gave her a slight nudge, as if he could sense her annoyance.

"I wasn't expecting to see you tonight," Rose said with what she hoped was a sincere smile, "Lissa didn't tell me you were coming," Tasha looked over her shoulder to smile at Rose,

"I wasn't supposed to arrive at court until tomorrow morning, but our flight came in earlier than expected." Walking into the living room, Rose could smell the meatloaf that Christian had in the oven, and her smile became genuine,

"Smells great in here, Sparky," Christian rolled his eyes, as he set a pan atop the stove, throwing some olive oil into a pan, followed by green beans and some garlic.

"Hey, Rose," Christian glanced over his shoulder at Rose, and then did a double take, "and Dimitri?"

"How nice of you to join us," Adrian came in from the back porch, wafting in the faint smell of cloves.

"Where's Alexander?" Rose asked, noticing that Adrian was baby-less.

"Lissa is in the other room changing him."

"Your baby is beautiful," Tasha chimed in, though there seemed to be a sinister look in her eyes, "I had no idea you were dating anyone,"

"She's not," Christian chimed in from the kitchen, "and Rose has been pretty tight lipped about the father." Tasha cocked her head to the side,

"Christian, don't be rude," Tasha said with an amused grin, "you never know, maybe Rose doesn't know who the father is," Rose narrowed her eyes,

"Wha.." before she could ask what Tasha was trying to get at, Lissa entered the room, with Alexander, his eyes wide and bright as he took in all the people in Lissa's home.

"I think someone wants to see mama," Lissa cooed, bringing Alexander over to Rose, placing him into her arms,

"Hey little man," Rose smiled down at her son. Alexander was making excited baby noises as he looked up at Rose, a twinkle in his eye that seemed reserved only for her. Behind her, Rose could feel Dimitri come closer, looking at Alexander from over her shoulder.

"Do you mind if I hold him?" Dimitri looked unsure, as if Rose might not let him hold Alexander,

"Of course not," Rose carefully placed Alexander into Dimitri's arms. Dimtri bent his head low, his forehead touching Alexander's.

"Privet, Privet," he whispered, a smile spreading across his face, through the bond, Rose felt Lissa's giddy emotions.

"Rose?" Adrian called, and when she turned to look at him, he motioned for the porch. With a slight nod, Rose turned back to Dimitri, placing her hand on his arm,

"I'll be right back," she told him, and once he gave her a quick nod of his head, she joined Adrian outside. Once the sliding door slipped shut, Adrian pulled out his pack of cigarettes, slipping one into his mouth before finishing around in his pocket for a lighter.

"Adrian," Rose crinkled up her nose in disgust, "you know I don't like it when you smoke around me." Adrian shrugged, the flame snapping from his lighter, and dancing onto the end of his cigarette,

"It's not like you're pregnant anymore." Rose rolled her eyes, "I guess you told Belikov about Alexander?" Rose nodded,

"He's taking it well," Rose nodded again, smiling a bit,

"I guess his love for Alexander kind of helps him look over the minor details." Adrian laughed humorlessly,

"It's more than just love of his son." Rose blushed, and then suddenly felt Lissa through the bond. Almost like a nagging, it was as if she were purposely calling for Rose's attention. Adrian noticed the sudden change in Rose,

"Rose?"

"Hold on, I gotta check on something." And just like that, Rose went into Lissa's head;

_Lissa was slowly walking through the living room. To the average eye, she was just straightening up the place, fluffing pillows, picking up blankets, and folding them, but Rose knew better; she was eavesdropping._

_Dimitri had made himself comfortable on the loveseat, with Alexander huddled in his arms, he gently fed him a bottle. Next to him, Tasha sat, her posture a little too straight, agitation clear on her face,_

"_Dimka," her voice was soft, "when did you come back to America?"_

"_About a month ago," Dimitri's voice was distant, his attention focused on Alexander._

"_Why didn't you call?" Tasha's voice was fake, and the smile she wore was too big, obviously false, "We could have gotten together to catch up."_

_Dimitri shrugged, or as much as he could manage with an infant in his arms, "It just hadn't crossed my mind, a lot was going on." Tasha sighed,_

"_Yeah, I heard about the little mishap at the academy," Tasha tossed back her hair, "wonder what the undead would want with a newborn." Lissa gripped the blanket she'd been folding a little tighter. Dimitri cleared his throat._

"_You must have heard the rumors," Tasha continued, "even if he isn't Adrian's, I wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't let the kid become some sort of royal pawn." Dimitri looked up, his eyes blazing with anger,_

"_Don't talk about her like that."_

"_Like what?" Tasha asked innocently, "Honestly Dimka, I would have thought this whole crush on a school girl thing would have ended by now." Dimitri snorted,_

"_Act like I haven't noticed," Tasha was no longer smiling, "I saw the way you looked at her last year, how you looked at each other. Now that you're back, it's as if nothing has changed."_

"_Nothing has changed," Dimitri corrected her._

"_She has a child now," Tasha said sternly, "how could you still love her after this?" Dimitri, obviously having lost his patience, suddenly had a mean glint in his eye,_

"_Are you upset Tasha?" Dimitri tilted his head, in order to get a better view of Tasha's face, "Are you upset that I told you to go home back in Russia?" Rose felt Lissa's surprise mock her own; Tasha had been in Russia?_

"_I was willing to give you everything," Tasha said bitterly, "I was willing to give you a child but as soon as Rose cries for help you come crawling back and pick up the pieces."_

"_Rose never cries for help," Dimitri said, amused, "and the only pieces I picked up were from the things I had broken. It's no concern of your anyway."_

"_I'm your friend, Dimka; I'm just trying to look out for you before you get hurt."_

"_I know what I'm doing."_

"_Is that why you're in here feeding Rose's child while she's outside talking to Adrian?"_

"_Our child," Dimitri said simply, obviously ignoring the Adrian part. Tasha's eyes became saucers,_

"_What do you mean 'our'? This is going too far, that girl has you brainwashed, you can't honestly take her and that child in so quickly? You can't thin-"Dimitri stood up, deciding that enough was enough, his eyes were dangerous,_

"_He is mine, and even if he weren't I would be more than willing to be a father to him. If you are too blind to see the relationship I have with Rose, than I don't have the patience for you." With that, Dimitri walked to the kitchen, looking to talk to anyone other than Tasha._

Both Rose and Lissa felt a little cocky as Rose brought herself back to her own body_. _Adrian was just putting out a cigarette, looking up with a smirk,

"Welcome back,"

"I'm sorry I was just-"

"Eavesdropping?" Adrian said, his eyes shimmering with their usual charm.

"On Tasha," Rose nodded, feeling a bit like a child who had just gotten caught eating dessert before dinner, "she doesn't agree with Dimitri taking care of my child."

"That's because she doesn't know it's actually his, no one besides you, Dimitri, Lissa, and I do."

"I would have assumed Christian would have known by now," Rose muttered, though slightly relieved; she already heard enough cradle robber jokes from Adrian.

"Give you best friend a bit more credit," Adrian's smirk dropped a little, "you know it's going to take some time before you can tell people, right?"

"I know," Rose sighed, "I just want everything to be out in the open, I'm so sick of feeling like I have to hide it all away." Adrian shrugged,

"People just need to get used to you and Belikov together. Things might run a lot smoother than people finding out that not only are you with your old mentor, but that he's the father of your child; a miracle of science."

"I hate when you're right." Rose groaned, "Let's just get back inside before Tasha starts thinking that you and I are making child number two."

"Well I mean if you're offering…" Adrian trailed off, and Rose slapped him hard in the arm, "I was kidding, just kidding!"

Once Adrian and Rose had reentered the home, Christian had proclaimed that dinner was ready, and everyone sat around the table. Alexander, already burped and fed, lay asleep in the crib that Lissa and Christian had put in their guest bedroom.

"Dinner's great as always, Sparky." Rose said happily, already grabbing seconds when the others were only half way through their first plate.

"Well I'm glad I made extra," Christian laughed, "what with that appetite of yours, as well as your surprise plus one." Rose shrugged,

"I worked hard today, I deserve thirds and fourths." Dimitri laughed,

"Thank you for having me,"

"No need to be so polite, Belikov, we're all friends here." Dimitri nodded, a gratefully downing the food almost as quickly as Rose.

"Leave room for dessert," Lissa giggled, and Rose's head shot up,

"Dessert?" Lissa nodded, a devious grin spreading across her beautiful face,

"Guess what it is,"

"Is it a chocolate baked good that likes to be associated with cops and coffee?" Lissa rolled her eyes.

Turned out, Rose was right, and as she and Dimitri helped clear the table of everyone's dishes, she could smell the heavenly doughnuts as she walked into the kitchen.

"Try not to drool all over yourself," Dimitri chuckled, grabbing the plates from Rose's hands,

"Hey, I want to help!" she pouted, reaching out for the dishes.

"It's okay, Roza, go sit with your friends, I'll do it." Rose pouted,

"But then what am I supposed to do? I want to help," Dimitri winked, placing a soft kiss on Rose's cheek,

"You can save me a doughnut." Rose laughed,

"Challenge accepted."

Turns out, saving Dimitri a doughnut wasn't a problem; just like Christian, Lissa had made sure to make plenty of doughnuts. Rose was glad that her friends had a full comprehension of her love for chocolate glaze.

When the night was over, Rose and Dimitri walked in comfortable silence back to Rose's house. Alexander was wide awake, grabbing at the long strands of Rose's hair.

"Well I guess I won't be getting any sleep tonight." Rose sighed, though she was smiling down at her son.

"I can take the first shift," Dimitri laughed, "I think you still need to catch up on a bit of rest."

"I'm fine comrade," she leaned into his lean arm, "I'll take the first shift." Dimitri laughed, but agreed. Rose had an odd feeling of content, and in the back of her mind, she felt that she could get used to things being this pleasant.


End file.
